Process for seasoning wood



UNITED rare Pa-cones role ssasonrnewoon.

No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ATLAs 0. Gra n, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, residing at Warren, in the county of Trumbull and State ofOhio, have invented cer tain new and useful Improvements in Processesfor Seasoning Wood, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the process of seasoning wood by neutralizingthe tannic acid therein; expelling it and the water from the pores ofthe wood, and has for its objects, first, the shrinking of the wood soas to close the pores therein permanently so that further shrinkage byheat or anything else will be impossible; second, to render the processvastly more expeditious and much cheaper.

It is well known that a partial seasoning of wood has been accomplishedby keeping it a number of years in a dry atmosphere, and also by firstsoaking the wood in salted water-ordinarily for perhaps six months, andthen drying it in a slow drying kiln at low temperature for some days;and it has been scientifically proven that those processes eliminate butapproximately eighty per cent of the moisture and tannic acid as thebest known results, so that the wood when made up into furniture orhouse finishings, can and will because of the warmth of rooms, continueto shrink and produce loose and ill-fitting joints.

My invention saves that time and cures that defect and is completelynew, revolutionary and different in fact.

As nearly all wood contains tannic acid and oak contains more than mostwoods, I

cite it as a basis for complete explanation of my invention, applicableto all. woods.

The tannic acid I neutralize and eliminate by the use of salt as analkali, as do others, but in this manner; to-wit-- I fill a covered vatwith wood to be seasoned and a five per cent solution of salt and water(about) that is in the proportion of one-half barrel of salt to tenbarrels of water.

After the wood, water and salt have been put in the vat and the coverput on, I bring the water to the boiling point and boil it six hoursonly, (as against six months soaking of other processes).

Meantime I heat a drying kiln up to 250 Specification. of LettersPatent.

Application filed November 26, 1920.

Patented May 16, 1922.

Serial in. 428,498.

the cover of the vat is removed and at once i put the wood into the kilnand close the door, where it remains forty-two hours.

The wood is then removed and is reduced to its smallest dimensions, onehundred per cent of the water, salt and tannic acid having been drivenout and when jointed and fitted it retains its size and fitindefinitely. Boiling the wood siX hours opens the pores and allows thealkali to combine with the tannic acid, causing its neutralization; andthe pores fill with water and. salt.

)Vere the woodleft in the vat after the cover is removed, the cold airentering the vat would cause the wood to soak up or absorb more andcooler water; and close the pore surface openings to a degree and encasethem sufiiciently to retain much of the water held in the pores, as inthe present and prior practices of seasoning wood.

Wherefore the immediate transfer of the wood from the vat to the kiln isa very es sential feature of my invention. By thrusting the wood fromthe vat into the kiln heated to F. instantly the pores of the wood areshrunken and closed and all the water, salt and neutralized tannic acidholes inside, and there can be no further shrinkage by reason. of heatin houses or other places where the wood is subsequently used.

By my process the wood becomes one hundred per cent seasoned instead ofbeing from sixty to eighty percent freed from water, etc, as in otherknown processes or when seasoned by exposure for months or years in theoriginal way.

The temperature of the kiln (250 F.) is

an element of my invention because a lower heat does not close the poresquickly enough and a higher temperature burns it too much, and thelength of time for its retention (forty-two hours) in the kiln isessential as that much time is required to eject all moisture and closethe pores and a longer exposure tends to drying the Wood too much,leading to a'more or less powdered condition of its texture When readyfor use.

For seasoning WOOClS other than oak my invention is applied by leavingthe wood in the vat with the boiling, salted Water; and in the kiln,after removal thereto, a length of time respectively proportionate tothe known relative proportion of tannic acid contained in each Woodwhich is to be treated.

As stated above, therefore, I do not claim the soaking of Wood to heseasoned, in a solution of salt and Water in a vat and its subsequentdrying in a kiln, but I claim The process of seasoning and shrinkingWood consisting in boiling it six hours in an enclosed vat containing asolution of Water and five per cent salt; immediate removal therefrom toa kiln heated to 250 F. and its removal from said kiln at the end offorty-two hours.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

ATLAS O. CRAIL.

